RICCARDO MUTI

RICCARDO MUTI; A Misconception

Published: September 3, 2000

To the Editor:

Basing his opinion on ''brief personal encounters'' and interviews he has read, Bernard Holland falls vic

tim to a typically American misconception, seeing a foreigner's (in this case Riccardo Muti's) discomfort and lack of colloquial style as an ''imperious if not downright arrogant'' manner. And Mr. Holland's condescending pop-psychological analysis of Mr. Muti's ''upwardly mobile southern Italian'' aspirations is painful to witness. If New York is the communications capital of the world, as Mr. Holland claims, he is communicating a very unworldly message.

I do, however, agree that Mr. Muti might be the wrong man for the New York Philharmonic. Like an electorate, an orchestra gets the leader it deserves. In spite of the heroic efforts of Mehta and Masur, the New York Philharmonic has pugnaciously refused to live up to its potential.